A Little Story About Trends + Confidence
31 Aug 2018
When you’re at school, unless you’re a really cool kid, it often doesn’t pay to be an early adopter of trends. I will never forget a particular non-uniform day at school when I was about 11. Now let me just say that when you wear a uniform to school, non-uniform day feels like your day of reckoning, your chance to show the world what you’re really about and where you REALLY fit in to the social hierarchy.
I, being the try hard, trendy that I was, wore trousers that had a skirt built-in. Jollied by my mothers assurances that it was about to become ALL the rage, I trotted into school that day with a smile on my face, confident that this look was about to propel me to seriously new levels of cool (I say new, meaning I was most definitely not cool to start with). It took all of about 5 seconds on walking into the classroom for me to realise that I had made a grave mistake.
The key point about this quote, is that my version of ‘boring’, may well be very different to yours.
Well, my friends, that was my first lesson in trends. Unless, you’re already cool, trying to start your own trend, with the hope of it catching on, is simply not going to happen. You need someone cool (or in the case of the real world, a journo, a blogger, or someone with authority) to catch on to it and then you’ve got a chance at it taking off.
It took me a few years to recover from that non-uniform experience, not just in terms of emotional damage (!!) but also to realise that actually, I didn’t care what other people thought. I spent most of my early teens dressing like everyone else, EXACTLY like everyone else. To my mothers despair. But it must have been a coming of age thing, because when I reached about 17 or 18, I actually stopped caring. Of course, looking back on it now, I think, “What on earth was I thinking?”, but at the time, I was having fun and experimenting. In fact, I used to like it when people in Leicester laughed at what I was wearing, it meant I had succeeded in looking different.
Now the point of this story (yes, I am getting to it!), is that exactly the same goes for your decor choices, folks. Design is so subjective and everyone has different tastes. Even one product can be taken and styled in a multitude of different settings to create a completely different look. You don’t need to feel like you should follow trends. What’s actually important is finding what it is you love and basing your decor decisions around that. [You can read more here: How to Find Your Interiors Style.]
Image credit: @Patirobins | View her eclectic and moody house tour
And do you know what we find? Anyone whose opinion we respect, or for that matter, care about, respects us for having the courage to step out and be different. Our friends don’t always like what we wear, or what we have in our homes, but they respect us for doing it anyway.
If you’re going to try and style your home hoping that everyone else is going to come in, love it and then do something similar, then you can forget about it. If you’re doing something different, then just embrace it and know that not everyone who walks in the door is going to like it. But that’s OKAY.
How boring would life be if everyone looked the same, wore the same thing and styled their houses the same. Urgh! I couldn’t think of anything worse. So, if you feel confident enough to try something different, then fantastic, but try to remember my little story about the skirt and trouser combo. You’ve got to go into it knowing that you might be on your own, but have the confidence in your own mind and creativity to stick with it anyway.
Hollie x
16 replies to “A Little Story About Trends + Confidence”
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Good for you! Originality is the key! I have always striven to be my own person. So what I carry a Hello Kitty handbag and I am fast approaching my half century! I had a friend at university who used to greet me daily with “what have you come as today?!” I would like to think if I bumped into him again he would ask the same question!!! My mother has always said my house looks like Harrods crossed with Oxfam!
So glad to hear you agree, Geraldine! That’s so funny, a friend of mine always used to say that to me as well!! And my Grandma simply can’t get her head around my Mums house at all! Suffice to say, hers is a sea of beige!!!
Love this post! It takes guts to be different when you’re at school but life would be so boring if we were all the same. Sometimes you’ve just got to go with what your gut’s telling you. x
Thanks so much, Maxine! Great to hear you agree 🙂
It is funny how stepping out to be different can be so hard for some and yet so easy for others. I guess it depends how much comfortable you are with expressing your creative skills and relying on your own taste as opposed to what the current or next big thing is. It is a learning curve I guess!
I find it interesting that some people push the boundaries so much with their home, but not their clothes, or vice versa. Which just goes to show it’s often about confidence. Not always easy to find, but you’re right, it’s definitely a learning curve!
I was never one of the trendy kids at school as one of six kids, there wasn’t enough money to be dressed in the latest fashions. I always craved being one of the cool kids, but actually, as an adult, I’m comfortable with my own choices and it doesn’t have to be on trend. Individuality is key to being happy with who we are and what we like 😀 x
100% agree with this. The most important thing is to do what makes you happy! x
Such a wise words lovely ! i agree i have always been a black sheep and stood out cos of the way i dressed , and now in the uk cos of the way i speak – hah i cannot win but its good to be different and do what you love – life is to short xx thank you for using my photo – need to get that disco ball out again xx
You’re welcome! We LOVE your gorgeous home x
The most important lesson I remember my mother teaching me is that you don’t need to be like everyone else and in fact why on earth would you want to be just like everyone else? She taught me it’s cool to be different. So I was never one to jump on trends at school. In fact I remember going on a family holiday to Canada when I was 17. I came back with a pair of super wide flares and proudly wore them to school. They weren’t trendy then but I think I wore them with such confidence I pulled it off lol. I wish I had the same confidence when it comes to my home. But I’m slowly getting there. I just keep telling myself if I love it, it will work!
Exactly, it’s all about confidence really! It’s not easy to find that though, but I think it really helps to have parents who encourage you to be different.
A few thoughts on this. With Instagram it does feel that I mostly see the same kind of look over and over again. Same typographic prints (I currently have one), same dark walls (I have some too), the same light or vase etc. It is very difficult to be original when bombarded with the same images over and over, you end up copying others just because it is easy.
It is very difficult to be original (thinking of new ways to style a product that everyone else has in their home). It can also be very expensive to be original (buying products that no one else has).
So, in my view, it’s also OK to be ‘boring’. Not everyone is as imaginative as your interior stylist next door. A lot of people are happy to find something that pleases their eye without overthinking it.
Now, let’s talk about those new velvet chairs of yours!!
Just realised I didn’t come back to you on this! I totally agree that it can be very hard to be ‘different’ when we’re bombarded with the same visual inspiration on social media everyday. Add to that, that design comes naturally to some, and not to others. Budget is of course a big factor, however not everything has to be bought new. Some of my favourite, most characterful pieces are from charity shops.
Many are perfectly happy designing in their comfort zone, and that’s absolutely OKAY. This post is really for those who want to be original and want to try something different, but haven’t quite got the confidence to do it. It’s more about letting people know that it’s OK to be different, if that’s what they want to be.
Yes to this, having character and personality is way more interesting!
Thank you, Susan!